Knowledge that Transforms

Since its emergence within the field of organization studies around the start of the 1990s, discourse analysis (DA) has moved from the margins to become a well-established and institutionalized approach to understanding a variety of organizational phenomena. Of course, this approach has not been without its critics. One particularly persistent criticism has been that in its focus on the discursive and emphasis on social-constructionist ontology and epistemology, DA has failed to engage with non-discursive aspects of organizations. This argument has been made in particular by scholars influenced by critical realism and has come from within DA (e.g., Fairclough, 2005), as well as outside (e.g., Reed, 2000; Thompson and Harley, 2012). In this Point–Counterpoint, three papers address the relationship between the discursive and the material in organization studies. Hardy and Thomas (2015) begin the Point–Counterpoint by arguing that critics who assail DA for ignoring the material have misunderstood this approach. In making this argument, the authors revisit the work of Michel Foucault – one of the major influences on DA within management studies – and argue that in fact a concern with the material is integral to his approach. Thus, they argue, Foucauldian DA necessarily engages with both the discursive and the material. Hardy and Thomas illustrate their argument with reference to four aspects of materiality commonly discussed by DA scholars: bodies; objects; spaces; and practices. They conclude their piece by arguing that if DA is to advance knowledge, particularly of power in and around organizations, it must necessarily involve empirical research on the material effects of discourse and the discursive effects of materiality. In the second paper, Orlikowski and Scott (2015) respond by supporting the turn to materiality in organizational research and endorsing Hardy and Thomas' argument that DA can be used to research aspects of materiality. They then move to map out their own approach, informed by Barad's concept of agential realism (Barad, 2007). They emphasize the role of researchers in acting upon that which they study, rather than simply generating representations of reality from an external vantage point. A key point of divergence from Hardy and Thomas' argument is that Orlikowski and Scott do not see practices as an aspect of materiality. Nor do they accept that practice and discourse are separate, if intertwined, phenomena. Rather, they conceptualize practices as constitutive of reality and consider these always and everywhere as material-discursive. Thus, while their approach complements that of Hardy and Thomas, it differs from it in important ways which have significant implications for research practice. In the final paper in this collection, Putnam (2015) also applauds the increasing focus on materiality in organization studies, but also diverges from Hardy and Thomas' approach. She argues that many Foucauldians do indeed privilege the discursive over the material. She also differs from Orlikowski and Scott by asserting that the discursive and the material are empirically distinct, while at the same time being indivisible. Thus, she argues, they should properly be understood as being held together in a mutual tension – a dialectical relationship – while being studied as empirically separate phenomena. In setting out her argument, Putnam considers five approaches to understanding this dialectical relationship between discourse and materiality which can be found in the literature: Foucauldian analysis; materiality and performativity; imbrication; plenum of agencies; and the mangle. Based on comparing and contrasting the five approaches, she draws out a series of implications for future research on materiality and discourse. Collectively, these three papers demonstrate the growing importance of materiality, as well as highlighting the challenges and opportunities of studying the materiality within broadly social constructionist frameworks. We hope and expect that this Point–Counterpoint will stimulate scholars working on discourse and materiality as well, no doubt, as generating new critiques from within and outside the DA community.

ABSTRACT This study examines how organizing is done reflexively through practice in the context of knowledge sharing. Organizing concerns reduction of equivocality and sensemaking so that actions can be interpreted and coordinated. Reflexivity refers to the fact that this organizing is done through talk, and that talk is an action that requires organizing. To examine how this reflexive organizing is accomplished, detailed analysis of video‐recorded interactions among photocopier service technicians revealed various interactional methods to make actions of requesting and offering assistance understandable and relevant. To explain these methods, Goffman's concept of embedding is applied. By embedding other social situations in the current talk, one can project a certain sense of one's talk. This reflexive organizing clarifies that organizing is part of, not separate from, any practice and that knowledge sharing is accomplished not through a retrospective narrative but through reflexive construction of the situation in which talk is made possible.

This paper adopts a contingency approach to the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and seeks to establish boundary conditions for the value of certain information technology (IT) capabilities. We first identify inter-organizational alliances as a specific strategy context in which IT capabilities are particularly valuable. We then consider more detailed boundary conditions that can shape the value of these capabilities within the alliance context. Our study shows that firms with better IT capabilities can derive greater value from an alliance, yet this effect also varies across different types of alliances depending on an individual alliance's characteristics. Specifically, IT capabilities are more valuable for alliances with a non-equity governance structure, as well as those involving a high degree of interdependence between partners. We highlight the implications of our findings for opportunities to advance the RBV.

Abstract This study examines organizational path constitution from an institutional regime view. The research setting is the conversion of military firms to the civilian market in China since the country's economic reform in 1978. We begin with a questionnaire survey to better understand the situation and context of military conversion, and then conducted an embedded multiple‐case study method that shows how different patterns of organizational path constitution arise from a process of change efforts, change outcomes and opportunity space. Our context further allows us to examine how heterogeneous locally‐based institutional regimes affect the opportunity space of embedded organizations, enabling or constraining their change actions. The overall contribution is a theoretical model that reveals the relations between heterogeneous institutional regimes, opportunity spaces and organizational path constitution. Our findings have implications for the path dependence literature.

Abstract Does acquisition of low‐cost capital through market timing improve the likelihood of a firm's internationalization? Under what circumstances will the above relationship be stronger? These questions are the focus of our study. We integrate the arguments of the resource‐based view and the market timing theory to answer these questions. We constructed a sample of capital‐raising moves and international investments by 905 listed Chinese firms spanning the 1992–2012 period. Based on random‐effects regression analyses, we find that firms deploying market timing are indeed more likely to internationalize. We also find that this effect is stronger for initial entries than subsequent expansions in a country.

Abstract The sustainability of cooperatives versus corporations is hotly contested. We propose that strategic choices at entry can help to explain the endurance of these two governance modes. We hypothesize that cooperatives have a survival advantage if their major drawback – high coordination costs – is curbed by high levels of member engagement at founding. Our analysis of survival rates in the US bio‐ethanol industry shows that cooperatives outlive corporations (1) if investment size at founding is large (strong financial engagement), (2) if they enter de novo instead of de alio (strong product‐market engagement) and (3) if the cooperative venture has been carefully planned from the start (greenfield entry) instead of built upon the acquisition of an existing plant (strong venture‐building engagement). These findings caution against the view that a particular mode of governance is superior or inferior to another in all circumstances.

ABSTRACT The issue of conformity to social norms has been a major focus of research. Yet, intermediate conformity, which refers to actors who are neither total conformers nor non‐conformers, has received scant attention even though the behaviour is likely widespread. This paper aims to extend the literature on conformity to social norms by laying the foundations for a tractable theory of intermediate conformity. Here, a set of key factors hypothesized to lead actors into intermediate conformity is identified and formal arguments about the dynamic‐legitimacy and reputational effects of their intermediate conformity moves are formulated. Important building blocks include a taxonomy of norms that allows for norm heterogeneity and a recognition that conformity may change over time. The developed framework provides a new conceptual lever for better understanding how intermediate conformers cope over time with social norms of different types and importance.

ABSTRACT This research examines employees' anticipation of social and self‐sanctions as a self‐regulatory mechanism linking workgroup climates and counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs) and personality as a limit to these effects. A cross‐level study with 158 employees from 26 workgroups demonstrated that in groups with a high compliance climate – a climate emphasizing the importance of complying with organizational rules – employees anticipate more social and self‐sanctions, leading those low in conscientiousness and low in agreeableness to engage less frequently in CWBs. In contrast, a high relational climate – a climate emphasizing the importance of positive social relations over self‐interest – indirectly unbridles the CWBs of these employees by alleviating the social and self‐sanctions they anticipate for CWBs. Climates did not have indirect effects for employees high in agreeableness and high in conscientiousness. These findings elucidate why workgroup climates do not affect the CWBs of all members in the same way.

Abstract This paper explores how large‐scale social‐driven collaborations might grow in scale and help promote political change. We present the results of a qualitative investigation of a complex platform where multiple and hybrid collaborations co‐exist and where civil society plays a central role. Based on a longitudinal comparative case study, we draw a processual model describing micro‐practices and pathways of engagement. We show that the emergence of these collaborations requires a new type of convener, one that is able to manage the interplay between the sharing/co‐creation of abundant resources and the coordinated decentralization of informal authority. Our study extends existing debates on the role of resources and authority, showing the complementarity between possession and practice perspectives of power. Finally, we identified synergies between collaboration and social movement literatures, particularly showing that large‐scale collaborations could be mobilized to refine social movement agendas and achieve more purposive collective action.

ABSTRACT Factors that affect a firm's ability to achieve an advantage may differ from those that affect its ability to sustain that advantage. Moreover, if advantage is a relative concept then studies that relate resource stocks to ‘absolute’ outcomes say little about how resources contribute to enduring differences among firms. We explore these issues in the global semiconductor industry by analyzing how a firm's resource stocks contribute to the persistence of an innovation advantage (a relative outcome). The findings demonstrate that a firm's own production experience and the experience held by its partners contribute to temporary innovation advantages. The results also show that a firm's own production experience yields a more durable innovation advantage as compared to the experience held by a firm's partners and that the experience held by a firm's partners provides a more enduring advantage than a firm's patent stock.